Winter Heaven rounded up Samoa’s programme for the championships in Kazan. One of two Pacific island swimmers in the same Heat of the Men’s 100m Butterfly.
Winter broke the national record in the 100m Freestyle earlier this week and mentioned at the time, that whilst he was looking forward to the 100m Butterfly he was working on a few things technically to produce his best performance possible.
“ I’ve been working on my second kick, the timing, trying to bring it in a little later in my stroke so it pushes me forward instead of up. Also with my arms trying to pull straight back instead of a little ‘s‘ shaped.”
It gave us an insight into the marginal gains that can be made through the constant analysis that swimmers have to utilise on a daily basis in order to perform at the highest level.
In his Heat, Winter turned at 50m in 26.54 seconds and completed the 100m in 57.47 seconds. Just six hundredths of a second from breaking his national record which he set at the 2014 Oceania Championships in New Zealand.
Being so close, but yet so far, was the initial frustrated reaction as he reflected on the last minute in the pool.
“ I’ll have to go back and have a look at the splits and the replay to see what I can work on. It was not what I was hoping for but I can’t complain. I went fairly close. It’s definitely a stepping stone. It’s good to have the performances under my belt and to move forward and to see how I handle such a big stage and gather experience.”
It’s always difficult to reflect immediately after competition and it was clear that the more Winter spoke the more he began to draw the positives from his week. A week in which he brought a national record and a near miss for Samoa.
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